[Idea] Robocop (1987) UAR version

[spoRv]

Stamper has the "surroundized" file, and he's working on fixing it; even if the surround is fake, and so voice spills over all the channels, I think that probably the only central channel will be enough for the restoration; if not, TomArrow is ready to use his hardware decoder, that *should* work better than software (I believe/hope)!

Back to UAR: checked further 35000 frames (24m); confirmed that almost all the shots (I bet around 95%, if not more) are substantially "enhanced fullscreen": a 1.33:1 frame with a little bit more on both sides. I was forced to use the 1.85:1 alone only for a handful of shots - few hundred frames in total - because they were missing from the fullscreen version, but apart them, the rest is "pure UAR"!

Very few wobbling frames, not so noticeable - and I bet they will pass unnoticed when watching the movie WITH sound, and immersed in action.

I noted some shots where top/bottom slices from fullscreen seem a bit darker than center; dunno if it's in the source (like fullscreen is darker or letterbox lighter), or it's due to different grain; the strange fact is that's noticeable only in some shots... it maybe that the sources differ in brightness (by one point, I guess), but this is not always noticeable... I'll finish the lossless encode, then I'll check it out.

[Stamper]

OK I checked both french files, there are too many instances of differences between the two mix to fix it just by putting some of the lines back.
In many places, background talk is kept in english where it was french on the other mix. I think the french mix since the DVD days is just an early uncompleted mix that they have been trying to fix ever since.
I think the best way would be to resync the french laserdisc sound to the TC as it is the only version that is pure and untouched without any dub change.
Maybe it could be cool if TomArrow extracted the channels. That way, I could offer two versions for choice, the 2.0 laserdisc, and a 5.1 version, both fixed.

However I think the laserdisc rip is compromised because the poster have replaced TC sounds with the DC version in several parts. So it means I have to ask him if he can provide me the laserdisc rip without any resync. If I can get this, then I can produce the two versions, and we're all set. Emailing him right now.

[spoRv]

OK, let's wait for his answer; meanwhile, Tom, are you ready?

[Stamper]

He answered back, files will be soon on the way! He advised me not to use the surrounds of the french 5.1 because it has issues too. It seems the whole french 5.1 is full of errors, so it's better just to include it as a bonus alternate track, or not include it at all.

With his files, I will sync to the Sony disc, then TomArrow might experiment a 4.0 version, that could be cool as an alternative that can be offered apart from your release if it creates space problems to it.

[deleted user]

Yep, I'm ready. For best results, the untouched bit-perfect PCM track would be fine. Just PM me the track and I'll make the surround file out of it. The standard output of my decoder is the mentioned 4.0, but I typically mix it up to 5.1 (splitting the rear mono into surrround left and right with -3dB, to create a rear "phantom center" and creating a LFE from the low frequencies of all the channels). You can have one of those, or both, as you like.

[Stamper]

I was wondering if the surrounds of the english version are clean of any voice (ie no Robocop voice echoing in the back), maybe we can use them?

[spoRv]

Finished the encoding; as noted before, there were few wobbling shots here and there; investigating about this, I noted the two sources were few pixels out of alignment, due to wrong resize settings (my bad!), so, even if in almost all shots they matched nevertheless, in those few shots they didn't...

Also, in other shots, the top and bottom slices were slightly different in brightness and colors; a very slight difference in grain didn't help as well.

So, I managed to correct the resize, adjusted the grain, refined brightness and colors and now it *should* work - I tried to re-render the most problematic shot (the one at the beginning of the ED209 test clip, to be clear); while before it wobbled quite a lot, now it is barely noticeable (and wobbles was in the sources); so, I *guess* no other shots would wobble (at least, not as now), as almost all of them were rock steady.

Now, I'm waiting for the French tracks - the best option would be to have the PCM decoded with hardware Dolby Surround decoder (maybe including the original LFE channel from the multichannel track) made by TomArrow, and the revised 5.1 track, using the latter for the fixing, made by Stamper.

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Now, am I the only one who thinks that Dick Jones death shot is simply horrible, and that those three second almost ruin a movie otherwise perfect (even with its sometimes less-than-perfect other SFX?)


Now, it will be relatively easy to take Ronny Cox's face from other scene(s), and copy&paste it over this horrible dummy, and of course shorten its arms at the normal size; or, better, recreate a digital 3D model, using one of those great neural net softwares that takes faces from various frames, and creates a realistic model... and don't bring me the excuse that "this it what was possible to do at the time" because Die Hard, released the year after, has a similar shot, but perfectly made!!!

[deleted user]

Why, that shot looks immaculate. I see no fault in it!

[spoRv]

Why, that shot looks immaculate. I see no fault in it!

[Stamper]

OK got the untouched LD rip! I now need to convert to 23.976 and make sure the pitch is right.
Then it's gonna be down to syncing, which I will do using the image of both.
PDB, is there out there a h264 version of the Sony disc? Cause to sync, I will probably need this to import the picture in the timeline, unless I find that both cuts align once starting sync frame is set.